Features

What's On Stage

Ask me who's the most refreshingly irrepressible interviewee I've met in the past few years and it has to be the young American soprano who's currently singing Isolde for ENO. This conversation with Heidi Melton, which took place midway through rehearsals for Tristan and Isolde, and before much was known about Daniel Kramer's production, ranged hither and yon. But it started (of course) with Wagner.

Quad-City Times

Heidi Melton approached her first Richard Wagner opera with the caution of nearing a wild animal. "I had always thought that I couldn't look at it or touch it because everybody had said, 'It's a voice-ruiner, don't do it till you're 50,'" Melton, 33, said.

But in 2007, while she was in a young opera artist program in San Francisco, she got a last-minute call to replace a diva who would not be available for the first few weeks of a production of Wagner's "Tannhäuser."

"It just fit," the soprano said in a phone interview from San Francisco. "I thought, 'Hey, this might be something.'"

Schimmel Center Blog

This Sunday, May 17th, the VOCE at Pace series will conclude for the 2014-15 season with soprano, Heidi Melton. Called, “the Wagnerian voice we’ve been waiting for since Flagstad and Nilsson,” the young, soprano will show off her incredible musical artistry with a solo recital on the Schimmel stage. I recently had the opportunity to discuss the upcoming recital with Melton herself.

Plays to See

American Dramatic Soprano, Heidi Melton, is in Toronto singing Sieglinde for the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Die Walküre. Ms. Melton has been described as poised to recapture the glory of Flagstad or Nilsson. She brings a masterful depth and range to her performances, and most notably, has mesmerized audiences around the world with her wise and deeply human portrayals of Wagnerian heroines. In this interview, Ms. Melton opens up on being an artist and a woman. Her powerful voice, on the stage and in life, is an inspiration to us all.

Schmopera

American dramatic soprano Heidi Melton is currently in Toronto to sing Sieglinde in Atom Egoyan's upcoming production of Die Walküre at the Canadian Opera Company. She was lovely, and kind enough to talk about singing Wagnerian roles, and the slow burn that is Der Ring des Nibelungen.

Ms. in the Biz

Heidi, you’re clearly on your way to becoming a legendary operatic superstar at the young age of thirty-something. If you could, what are 3 things you would tell your 13-year old self about being a woman in the Arts?

1) Be kind to yourself. You’re going to have enough distracters and nay-sayers in this world and you need to be your own ally and not your own enemy.

2) Glamour is an attitude, and not an actual thing you can purchase. I used to wear heels, dresses and Spanx every day and I was sweaty and uncomfortable. Now, I wear leggings, oversized tunic tops, scarves and flats. Don’t let anyone tell you that you have to be anything other than yourself. Yourself is enough.